TSMC starts mass production of 65-nanometer chips

BLOOMBERG

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest maker of customized chips, started mass production of its most advanced products for customers including a Motorola Inc supplier, at least two months before schedule.

"Taiwan Semiconductor recently started mass production of 65-nanometer chips, for customers such as Altera, Broadcom and Freescale," Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓), the company's spokesman, said by telephone yesterday.

The move suggests that TSMC, which makes chips used in Xbox 360 game consoles and Razr phones, is widening its lead over its closest competitor, helping it benefit the most from expected record sales of consumer electronics this year.

Rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) in February said it planned to start mass production of 65-nanometer chips next year.

"It provides unprecedented opportunities for our customers to further advance their leadership positions in their marketplaces," TSMC chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said in a statement released yesterday.

Tsai said on April 27 that TSMC would begin mass producing some chips using 65-nanometer technology in the second half of this year.

The technology helps shrink chip sizes, increasing output and reducing costs. A nanometer, a billionth of a meter, measures the distance between transistors in a chip.